The Lowline is a project underway on the Lower East Side of New York City that is transforming a former trolley station into an underground park. The park would use solar technology to bring light into the subterranean space, which would be used to grow plants beneath the surface.

The Lowline is getting closer to becoming reality.

The Lowline Lab opened recently. It’s a live experiment that takes place in an old market to see which plants are best equipped to live in the environmental conditions of the future subterranean Lowline park. Inside the lab, devices, created by James Ramsey at Raad Studio and Sunportal, follow the sun throughout the day, taking the light through tubes that then distributes it into a canopy over the plant life below. The canopy was designed by Ed Jacobs, an engineer.

The Lab was built by John Mini Distinctive Landscapes and designed by Signe Nielsen of Mathews Nielsen. Its a total 1,000 square feet with 3,000 plants. Many of these plants are unique, allowing the scientists to find particularly interesting plants to design the Lowline with.

People learn more about the plant life. Credit: The Lowline

it’s located about two blocks from the proposed Lowline site on 140 Essex Road. It’ll be open on the weekends from 12 p.m. – 6 p.m. It’s free and open to the public until March 2016.

The park is open to the public on weekends because during the week, students in the Young Designers Program study there, learning about plant life and everything that goes into building the Lowline.

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This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/how_the_lowline_is_growing_underground/10474